She slid her hand up Sholandra's back to the clasp of her bra. Her lips slid up to Sholandra's ear, and she blew softly, not too aggressively, but ver... suggestively, into it."How about it?" she whispered hotly. "I want you."Sholandra twisted away, petulantly. "No. You're just trying to confuse me." She glowered at Laura. "Why do you like black chicks so much, anyway? Is she black too, your new girl? Is she hot? Does she fuck hotter than white girls do? I think you're sick, Laura. Have you ever. That all ended when we stepped off of the elevator on the floor where the Director’s office was located. Ingrid was there to greet us.“You certainly took your time returning, why didn’t you fly back?” she demanded in her usual brusque manner on seeing us.“We had some personal business to take care of,” I told her in just as blunt a voice as she had used.“The Director will see you now,” she told us after the few seconds it required for her to recover, and she led us down the hall to his office. There was not a whole lot to do in that period, and time passed slowly and uneventfully. Halfway on the trip he’d taken to carving out little patterns on the coffee cup with a spoon. He became quite adept, embossing landscapes of little swirling clouds and ocean scenes. One Niyanese officer even offered to buy one for 10 kilocredits. Mostly, though, the little artifacts were binned as quickly as they were made. The last week of the trip the atmosphere became tense, and a sort of coppery stink. We passed through countless doors and even rode the elevator higher into the building. Wherever he was taking me, it was well away from where I had found Fiona. As if that would stop me from finding her again once I was free.When we left the elevator, we were apparently on the roof. The wind howled and the floor was rough. A thought crossed my mind. I didn't like it. "Why are we on the roof?" Don't worry. You won't be for long."Of course, with that as an answer, I renewed my struggles. I might.